William Stanhope was a British diplomat and politician who held several diplomatic posts and became Secretary of State for the Northern Department in 1740. He was raised to the peerage as Earl of Harrington in 1742.

The registry identifies the eighteenth-century purchaser as the Earl of Harrington but does not expressly name him; William Stanhope is the historically corresponding first holder of that earldom and should be treated as a probable rather than certain manor-specific identification.